NEW HAMPSHIRE, THE GRANITE STATE
now contains refreshment much more in
nocuous than the "five hundred gallons of
New England rum" which, tradition says,
constituted so large a part of the initial
curriculum.
He also presented an ornate badge of
office for the president of the college,
which is duly handed to each new incum
bent at his inauguration. The late Presi
dent Tucker accepted the bauble, saying:
"The badge I accept, but I cannot promise
to wear it."
President Hopkins, however,
wears it on academic occasions and did not
disdain to have his portrait painted with it.
Wentworth's enterprise at Wolfeboro,
named, it may be noted, for him who "fell
victorious" upon the Plains of Abraham,
turned the pioneer stream northward as
against its earlier westward trend, and he
had the satisfaction of seeing, before his
exile, the Notches at Franconia and Craw
ford's opened for travel.
TIHE FIRST OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN
BONIFACES
Just when the first tourists began to
trickle into these defiles is a matter of both
conjecture and controversy; but the claim
of Abel Crawford seems fairly well sub
stantiated as the first of White Mountain
bonifaces, at his inn at the beautiful Notch
which bears his name. Accommodation
was primitive, I imagine, if one can judge
from a remembered remark of an old
friend of mine who went there as a boy
nearly a hundred years ago. The number
of guests who could be housed, he said,
depended upon how many beds were set
up in a room and how many sleepers were
put in each bed.
It's nothing like that now. Millions of
dollars have gone into the recreational in
dustry in New Hampshire, and the finan
cial results are astounding. The State's
investment in this enterprise is a larger
sum than is represented by even the largest
of our mills, our railroads, and our shoe
industry put together, and the revenue
brought into the State each summer is pro
digious. The establishments range in size
and character from the great and palatial
hotels in the mountains to the simple farm
house with "rooms for tourists," but the
hospitality is all of the same grade.
Among the titles in which New Hamp
shire glories is that of "the Switzerland of
America."
And indeed we are-not alone
because of our mountain topography, our
"white coal," and our peaks, which, after
all, are, with the exception of Harney
Peak, South Dakota, ,the highest east of
the Rockies and north of the Carolinas
and Tennessee-"from Rocky Mountains'
noble heights to crest of the Pyrenees," as
one of our exultant poets has sung it. One
of our historians, Frank B. Sanborn, a na
tive of the State, found our claim to the
title in the character of our people, whom
he likened, in their resistance to the aggres
sions of the Wentworths in pre-Revolu
tionary times, to the revolt of the Swiss of
the Forest Cantons against the oppression
of their Hapsburg governors; and Mr.
Sanborn adds: "The story of those far-off
and legendary days cannot be read, espe
cially in the verse of Schiller's 'William
Tell,' without recalling to a son of the
Granite State the annals of his own
ancestors."
We like to think this to be true. In
summer our defiles are thronged by the
thousand, but in winter we are well-nigh
deserted. The Appalachian Mountain Club
visits us, piecemeal and sporadically, though
their trails and their cabins have a call
which should be as strong in winter as
in summer.
The Dartmouth Outing Club, however,
has been by no means slow to make use of
the winter months.* This organization
has its chain of cabins, also, which covers
the territory from Mount Cardigan to
Mount Washington, and its hikes, as de
scribed in the college publications, remind
one of the heroic tales which Napoleon
wrote upon the face of the Alps. At Dart
mouth the winter carnival has become a
fixture in the college calendar, and it is
now celebrated with all the embroideries
of such events, ice sculptures adding the
artistic to the adventuresome, and a queen
to rule the roost (see page 281).
Some of our cities, whose latitude gives
permission, have their carnivals, too; and
another fixed observance of our winter sea
son is the dog races, because in our east
ern hills lie the kennels from which explor
ers of both the Arctic and the Antarctic
have taken their sledge teams.
Increasing competition and changing
economic conditions have caused a reces
sion in our basic industries, but there can
be no competition and there is no change
* See "Skiing Over the New Hampshire Hills,"
by Fred H. Harris, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE for February, 1020.
271